Nizzoli Architettura

	The exhibition
	A short history
	In 1947 Giuseppe Mario Oliveri arrived in Milano and started working with Marcello Nizzoli. It was the starting point of a cultural and professional partnership that in some extraordinary moments produced some significant achievements for Italian culture. From the end of the forties to the end of the fifties, together with Marcello Nizzoli, G. Mario Oliveri specialized in industrial design and architectural projects for Olivetti company (Lexicon 80 typewriter, housing for the company employees in Ivrea) and for ENI group including the headquarters buildings at San Donato Milanese and the ANIC installations in Gela, Sicily. After Marcello Nizzoli retirement in the mid sixties G. Mario Oliveri continued the activity with various distinguished associates and partners; the firm took different names while maintaining the Nizzoli denomination. In 1983 the Municipality of Milano organized an exhibition dedicated to the firm activity. Over the years many well known professionals, including A. Mendini, A. Susini, P. Viola as well as many others, demonstrated their skills in industrial design, architecture and town planning. Some of the most important work belonging to those years are the Editoriale Domus publishing company office building and the competitions project for the town planning and architectural projects for the southern italian cities of Taranto (harbour and seaside resorts) and Otranto (touristic seaside resorts), the northern Italian city of Lignano, near to Venice (harbour), the competition project for the Carlo Felice Theater in Genoa, the competition project for the extension of the city of Bratislava in the Slovakian Republic. Also significant have been the designs for the Laverda Motor Company (travel trailer, combined harvester etc.). Since the middle of the eighties the Nizzoli studios reduce their professional activity and a new era begins with theoretical research and the participation to several competitions in which the main purpose is the elaboration of new language and forms. In 1995 "Nizzoli Architettura" firm for research and project debate is established.

	The office to-day: Nizzoli Architettura
	The Group Nizzoli Architettura, created by G. Mario Oliveri together with the architects Domenico Cavallo, Nicola and Michele Premoli Silva, Gabriele Tosi, in which several other young architects were admitted, participated to numerous national and international competitions of architecture since 1995. Partnerships with other Italian and foreign professional offices were established to drawn up many projects such as the study of feasibility for the development of Mount Mottarone as a tourist resort (1997), the restoration of office buildings in Milan (1998/2001), the compilation of the I.P.I (integrative plan for intervention) wanted by the municipality of Milan for quarter Nr. 2 of Town district Z 14 - area Origoni (2000), as well as several stores all over the world, including interior decoration and appliances made by various leading companies.Pure research, with the use of innovative ideas are topic for the office. In parallel with the planning for clients, new languages and forms are elaborate with the aim to be later applied to actual projects. The book and the exhibition will give wide space to this research' s achievements.

	The exhibition
	The idea of organizing an exhibition of architecture showing the works and the architectural theory of G. Mario Oliveri originates from various and manifold realities, all united by his personal poetics. The works embrace various areas, from painting to industrial design, up to architectural projects on a large scale; always with great consideration for the phenomena of sensory perception on the boundary-line between architecture and the other arts. The event pursues the following purposes: 1) To investigate into G.M. Oliveri's works throughout the various stages of his professional activity, with a retrospective exhibition giving proof of his having really been the element of historical continuity in this experience. 2) To emphasize the inmost growing of Oliveri's architectural vision, a personal research on space, no longer inside the " scientific" principles, but intrinsically united to the emotions, making the perception of space a real and regular sensory event. The idea of architecture linked to the expressionistic time is considered "improbable" by Oliveri. The possibility of including in the exhibition a space for the "improbable architecture" could be an interesting way of getting acquainted with it. "Planning imaginary architecture in imaginary sites allows you to disregard all rules and norms of building in order to focus on the architectural aspects of expression and project, ignoring all the other problems. Such artifice gives the possibility of highlighting the relation between the expressiveness of a project and the (planned) means required to obtain it and which of these means are proper (i.e. typical of architecture) and which are to be considered improper (i.e. borrowed from other arts such as sculpture, cinema, literature, etc.) The "improbable architecture" intends to investigate the interface (the space between the mask and the skin) between architecture (the mask) and the other arts (the skin) using indifferently the expressive means "proper" to each one freely. It is my impression that it is expedient for the expressiveness of an architectural project to go in and out of each discipline invading other branches in order to have an outcome which is not merely architecture but also "something else"." (G.M. Oliveri)

	Contents of the exhibition

	The pieces that are going to be exhibited at Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimò in New York can be distributed into four categories:

	1. ARCHITECTURE: - ENI office building at San Donato Milanese (1955) - Housing for ITALSIDER company employees, Paolo VI quarter, Taranto (1969) - Management building ironworks ITALSIDER, Taranto (1970) - Resort and harbour Punta Faro, Lignano Sabbiadoro (1977) - Headquarters of Editoriale Domus, Rozzano/Milan (1980) - Gas station and multilevel parking-house at Voghera (1981) - Civic Arena and Giardino dei Labirinti (park with labyrinths) (1988) - Offices Building in Milan, Via Montecuccoli (1991) 2. INDUSTRIAL DESIGN AND GRAPHIC ART - Front pages for the magazine "L'Architettura" (1955/1997) - Telephone and intercom sets for SAFNAT (1958) - Combine harvester for Laverda (1963) - Cubosfera (cubic sphere) lamp (1968) - Cylindrical lamp (1968) - PVC armchair Biscocca (1970) - Travel trailer series Blu for Laverda (1972) - Single control mixer Zetamix for faucet industry Zucchetti (1976) - Ceramic lamp "I Capitelli" (1979) - Table lamp "Valentina" (2000) - Table lamp "Atmosfera 1" (2000) - Table lamp "Atmosfera 2" (2000) - Table "Airone" (2000)		3. PROJECTS and COMPETITIONS - Town-planning studies for the south district of Bratislava (1967) - Project for the theater "Carlo Felice", Genoa (1982) - Draft proposal for the pedestrian area for Corso Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires Avenue), Milan (1993) - Competition for the new town center at S. Donato Milanese (1998)l - International Competition for the enlargement of the Architecture University in the area of the old refrigerated warehouses at Venice (1998) - International Competition for the Congress Center Italia, EUR, Rome (1998) - Competition for the new town hall of Bari (1998) - International competition "La città della scuola" (school city) at Sarno, Salerno (1999) - Competition for the new headquarters of the professional institute at Giulianova, Teramo (1999) - Competition for the new headquarters of the Italian Space Agency, Rome (2000) - Proposal for re-organizing Corso Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires Avenue), Milan (2000) - Project for new shopping centers (2000) 4. IMPROBABLE ARCHITECTURE - Olimpo (1990) - Eschilo (1991) - Domus Cadmi et Armoniae (1991) - Waterside city (1992) - Folly outside the walls (1992) - Skyscraper in evening dress (1992) - Mackintosh memorial (1993) - My graduation thesis (1998)

	The exhibition: where and when

		The book
City	Milano
Place	La Triennale di Milano	Title	"G. Mario Oliveri e gli Studi Nizzoli. Architecture and design since 1948"
Period	inauguration September 12th, 2001 Duration 5 weeks	Publisher	Editoriale Domus
		Language	Italian - English
		Size	about 200 pages
		Format	240 x 220 mm
		Photos/designs	color and b/w
		Price	USD 25-30

		The book will also contain essays by various professors : Gillo Dorfles, Arturo Carlo Quintavalle, Benedetto Gravagnuolo, Luigi Spinelli who is also the curator of the book

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